Two Iraq armor questions. What is the FS number for the desert tan color and second

I've been out of the armor business building aircraft for 20 some years but wanted to do a few for a change. I've got the M2A2 Bradley ODS kit and wondered what techniques you all use for painting the rubber wheels on all those road wheels. Do I still have to use the old paint brush method and spend boring hours doing it just like the old days or is there some new fangled technique to save time on this process? Thanks.

Painting

June 26 2012, 4:57 AM

You can buy pre cut wheel masks these days to mask and airbrush tank wheels. On the other hand, it takes longer to mask the wheels than it does to just paint them by brush in most cases. Modern tanks have relatively few wheels, with large tires and prominent rims, making painting fairly quick and easy. You can also get an artists circle template and spray the wheels through the appropriate size hole. basically you paint the tires first, hold the wheel behind the template, and spray the wheel hub.

The FS number for modern US tanks is 33446. Testors makes it in acrylic and enamel although I dont think they assign the FS number to it. AK Interactive (Vallejo) make a really good version too.

I concur

June 26 2012, 5:31 AM

Circle template is what I use. Unless you are building a vehicle that hasn't seen much use in the dirt, you don't have to be precise and even then you don't really need to be. Much of the suspension gets dusty dirty so you get away with some goofs here and there. We never used any masks when we painted our vehicles. Over spray was pretty common on the rubber areas.
As David said, spray the wheel black overall, then cover the outer rubber areas with the appropriate sized hole and shoot the inner wheel/hub area. "Q"

Bradley rubber rim

June 26 2012, 5:44 AM

The Bradley's rubber rim on the road wheel is smooth where the rubber meets the metal. There's no lip. The road wheels are spray painted and the rubber's elasticity eventually flakes off the paint. Most AFVs originally made by FMC (now BAE) used the same road wheels like the AAV7A1, Bradley, MLRS, and M109 howitzer series.

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